Maxwell's 11th Law: The Law of the Inner Circle

"A leader's potential is determined by those closest to him," is John C. Maxwell's 11th Law, from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998), p. 109.

Later (p. 110) he says,

Every leader's potential is determined by the people closest to him. If those people are strong, then the leader can make a huge impact. If they are weak, he can't. That is the Law of the Inner Circle.

Should you change your inner circle from time to time? That's an open question.

Here's what Maxwell says in the little box on p. 117:

Hire the best staff you can find, develop them as much as you can, and hand off everything you possibly can to them.

I'm in favor of having good people around me. Washington chose Hamilton and Jefferson to be in his inner circle. He let them argue things out and figured out what was the best course. The jury's still out on Obama.

But the word "hire" is a problem for me. As an entrepreneur, you should be hiring only as a last resort. Your vision and your example should be inspiring people. Make them feel a part of it. Trust them but always check. Build accountability into your system. Give them every prospect of prospering from your endeavor, and mean it. Then you will have something.

What do you think of this? The goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And follow me on Twitter.com.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.